‘Ultra’ soccer fans at heart of Egyptian protests

‘”Ultra” soccer fans in Cairo long have had a reputation for street fighting. This past week, they’ve turned their fury from rival clubs and countries to the government.
Alaa Abd El Fattah, a prominent Egyptian blogger, said in an interview seen on Al Jazeera, “The ultras — the football fan associations — have played a more significant role than any political group on the ground at this moment.”Sports Illustrated reports that the involvement of Cairo’s hard-core soccer fans in organizing neighborhood resistance to the police should come has broad implications throughout the Mideast. Fearing a spread of violence, neighboring Libya has joined Egypt in banning matches.

As soccer writer James Dorsey wrote this week, “The involvement of organized soccer fans in Egypt’s anti-government protests constitutes every Arab government’s worst nightmare. Soccer, alongside Islam, offers a rare platform in the Middle East, a region populated by authoritarian regimes that control all public spaces, for the venting of pent-up anger and frustration.”

SFGate soccer blogger Alan Black notes that one of the precursors to the revolution came in 2009 when the Algerian team was attacked on the bus in Cairo during World Cup qualifying, causing a diplomatic clash between the two nations. Arab media at the time speculated that pent-up anger over the social situation, with high unemployment among young people, was at the root of the violence.

Mideast Soccer Blog has a smart history of how the rivalry between fans of the two main two Cairo clubs, Zamelek FC and Al Ahly Sporting Club, has long had political overtones.

Their vicious derbies on and off the pitch have caused death, destruction and in at least one case in the early 70s, the entire league to be canceled.
Founded more than a hundred years ago as an Egyptians only meeting place for opponents of Britain’s colonial rule, Al Ahly, which means The National, was a nationalistic rallying ground for average Egyptians. Its players still wear the red colors of the pre-colonial Egyptian flag.

Coincidentally, the U.S. national soccer team is scheduled to play what’s known as a “friendly” with Egypt in Cairo on February 9. Friendly doesn’t describe the probable atmosphere. Insiders expect it to be moved or canceled.